


The Price of Revenge

by Evitcani



Series: Living and Dying Beneath the Veil [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Depression, Gen, Otherwise known as Evitcani Explains a Thing, Pre-Canon (ish), Taako and Kravitz's Early Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-18 23:58:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10627893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evitcani/pseuds/Evitcani
Summary: "What else would I have accepted for the life ofmy daughter? Revenge. Revenge against him. That he would have to suffer forever with me. Be robbed of every parent, sibling, lover, child, or friend. As I was," he looked up at Taako, "as I will be. For as many lifetimes as I had to suffer."A debt to be paid over an eternity.Spoilers for Episode 60 andThe Meaning of Life.





	1. Please Stop, You're Scaring Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps, there is no respite for the wicked. Perhaps, they have wickedness thrust upon them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This goes REAL heavy into abuse and depression.

Fear was something Taako had known since the age twelve when found his grandfather slumped over the old desk in the spare bedroom. No matter how much he shook the old elf, his grandfather didn't move. Lup ran to tell the neighbors while Taako sat on the porch outside and cried. It hadn't taken long for a tall man in a black cloak to arrive amidst a flock of raven, as if he'd swooped in with them. For a moment, Taako thought he heard his grandfather's voice, but was too afraid to go back inside as the mortician did whatever he needed to collect the body. It was just his mind playing tricks on him, he knew that, he _had_ to know that. He was glad Lup wasn't there. She already felt like she had to be the one who protected Taako. The mortician left and another tall clergyman came with a cart. 

They took away the last person Lup and Taako had beside each other. 

For a while, he thought they'd continue living on the farm with their aunt. Taako hoped he was wrong. She was young for an elf and she taught them how to cook. Her girlfriend, Hal'iana, thought Taako was disrespectful. When Taako was fourteen, he rolled his eyes at something she said trying to sound like she was _so_ smart. Hal'iana looked him up and down, judging Taako with every ounce of her fancy background and rich parents, glaring. "You have something to say to me, you ungrateful shit?"

She'd made it too easy. "Yeah, if you were so godsdamned smart, you'd know how to dress better than the fuckin' scarecrows, bubala," Taako smirked. Lup covered her mouth to stop a laugh and they shared a look, bumping fists under the table. Hal'iana stood and stormed around the table. Taako flicked his eyes up to her lazily, coolly. "A closer look makes it look worse. I think I could get better fashion advice from the stiffs in the graveyard, Halitosis." 

He wasn't smirking when she slapped him hard enough across the face to send him into the kitchen wall. Taako wasn't aware of much more than the shock and pain. When he was able to grasp what was going on, Lup had crimson splashed across her front. She looked as scared as Taako was. He heard a raven call. Taako turned his head slowly and the bird flew away clutching three copper in its talons. 

The militia said it was an accident; an untamed, magical outburst. They were children. Their aunt had gotten in the middle to try to protect Lup at the wrong moment and hadn't stood a chance.

Their uncle lived alone in the woods and wasn't too keen on having children around. He traded potions for food and was delighted to learn they could cook. He started teaching the twins how to control their magic in exchange.

Taako finally got something before Lup did. He stared in concentration at the tip of his wand. A small fizz of lights sparked. He shouted in victory, jumping around circles. Lup caught him and gave him a hug, spinning him around. Their uncle patted him on the shoulder, "I'm proud of you, Taako." He hugged them both with an exasperated look when the twins started crying.

Their uncle would tell them a riddle in the morning and they'd both try to figure out the answer by the time he came back from foraging for supplies. Throughout the day, they would clean the house and do whatever they wanted. At night, they'd eat dinner sitting on a rug in front of the simple hearth. Both of them loved the freedom. Their uncle never told them to do anything, deeming them old enough to figure things out on their own.

At age seventeen, Lup and Taako thought of the hut as home. The nearby village helped them search when he didn't come home for two days. Taako found him at the bottom of a long drop, barely alive. He smiled at Taako and patted his cheek. "Tell your sister I'm sorry I never taught her how to cast fireball," he mumbled. His eyes dimmed and his hand fall back against his ruined side, limp. A raven cawed and flew off far above Taako. Lup and the villagers found Taako by the sound of his sobbing. 

It was a terrible accident. The will their uncle had left behind, shakily written in his own blood, requested for them to go live with his son, the twins' cousin. Their cousin put them into a boarding school. The man felt like Taako and Lup should have the best education his considerable fortune could afford. He took the fact his father had charged him with their care very seriously.

Rich elf kids didn't have anything better to do when they were growing up except figure out the best ways to torment people. At least, that was Lup and Taako's educated guess. The school wasn't able to hone their powers, but it certainly sharpened their barbed tongues. Their cousin wrote them frequently, making sure they were okay. They both lied through their quills. 

The headmaster hated them. They had no respect for authority that hadn't been earned. Still, Lup did better than Taako did. She made friends and Taako _didn't_. She had things to do instead of getting insanely bored. Taako spent more time waiting to be yelled at than in class. He let Lup practice make-up on him one day and forgot to wipe it off. Her friends had started wearing it after classes and she'd wanted to see what it would really look like. The headmaster had cracked him across the knuckles for breaking dress code. Their cousin wrote to say he'd heard about the incident and had wrote a "terse response"; Taako was free to wear whatever he wanted on his face. Taako fluttered his mascara coated eyelashes and smirked his rainbow lips every time he passed the headmaster. The elf gritted his teeth, finding any and every other reason to yell at Taako. 

It only took a year for them to be escorted to the school gates by the headmaster and told their cousin had met an unfortunate accident. His assets were being donated to the city as he'd never changed his will. Taako spat in the headmaster's face. 

The headmaster slowly wiped the spit off with a handkerchief. "You were always a failure, Taako," he'd murmured. His hit barely tilted Taako's head sideways. "If your benefactor hadn't been so invested in the school, I would have knocked that stubborn streak out of you a long time ago."

"Now lets not get ahead of ourselves here, my man. You were always a piece of _shit_. Don't know how you're taking the moral high-ground while burning in hell," Taako laughed. He spat blood on the ground, then grinned back up at the headmaster. "You're too much of a coward shit-wizard to get the salt outta the shaker, homie, much less knock something outta _Taako_." 

Lup gave him a fist bump. "I wanna be mad you hit my brother, but honestly I think the breeze has more of an uppercut, nerd," her laugh was cruel and they turned, arms over each other's shoulders. They had nowhere to go, but at least they had each other.

They found their way with whoever was traveling and would take them. At first, they always tried to connect with the groups they traveled with, but the lives of adventurers were short. They never stayed for too long, never lingered with anyone they could care about for decades. Their one hundredth birthday went without much fanfare. They kept the names they'd given each other, the names their uncle and cousin had called them.

Norran was the first person to make Taako pause. He'd said the elf was better than a chef at a campfire. The twins applied to the most prestigious academy and to both their surprises, they were enrolled. 

He was a professor, but Taako certainly didn't need to fuck him for the A. No, he said he _loved_ Taako and Taako thought he wanted to be loved. To belong. To be owned. To be hurt. To be broken. 

It was better than _nothing_. Lup had friends, she had to work harder at classes than Taako did. She didn't notice. Until she did. They both screamed their voices raw, then huddled together, crying. 

Three weeks later, Taako finally had the nerve to walk over, hand-in-hand with his sister, and look Norran in the face. "It's over," he mumbled. 

Two weeks later, Taako went to get the clothes he'd left in the man's house. Hours later, he howled with laughter when Norran tripped and broke his neck on the fall down the stairs. A raven cawed from the window and watched the body like it knew something Taako didn't. Taako tried to ignore the unease as he tugged at the restraints, trying to free himself.

His blood went cold when he saw Norran standing right in front of him. A figure clad black swept claws through the recently-risen lich before he had a chance to even open his mouth. Taako squeezed his eyes shut and cowered back. When nothing happened for several minutes, he cracked an eye open to find himself alone.

Alone and untied.

Taako levitated the body outside and set it on fire. He limped home and never told anyone. He would come close, decades from that moment in a kitchen filled with warmth and love and everything Taako had ever wished for in those moments when he had still been young enough to wish for _home_.

Didn't stop him and Lup from defacing the school's memorial to the late professor. The academy was in an uproar trying to find the culprit. It felt like a punch to the gut when two others came forward, flashing their bruises and pointing proudly to their additions to the defacement. Taako had just thought it was _fucking perfect_ that he didn't matter enough to be the only one left broken. No, it wasn't enough he was almost killed, he was also being cheated on. Lup hadn't blinked when Taako started making a pile of blankets next to her bed to sleep on. 

The first time Taako woke up from a dream where he felt _happy_ and _loved_ , it had hurt so much he'd drug his nails down his arms just to feel _something_ else. Decades after that room had been consumed by The Hunger, Kravitz would say something beautiful and poetic and Taako would feel like it was _familiar_. Like they were things that had been haunting him his whole life.

Taako thought it was funny he'd broke up with someone who did exactly what he wanted and he despised himself as the piece of shit he was. He slunk into seedy bars for quick fucks. Lup applied to the Institute of Planar Research for both of them. They both graduated with job offers. Lup happy and ready to go while Taako was baffled, but relieved. 

He was glad to leave behind the whole damn planet. 

It had given him nothing but suffering. _No_ , he could forgive his home planet because it had also given him Lup.

How could he have forgotten _Lup_?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've sat on this a while.


	2. I Can't Help This Awful Energy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is not a story about Alli.

Fear was something Alli had known since he was three. The toddler knew he was smart. The boy was older than him, but he wasn't _sharing_. He told a girl to punch a boy in the face and she followed the command without blinking. The boy had dropped the toy at Alli's feet. Then, the girl reeled back in fear. Both of them ran away screaming. 

His baba watched him worriedly. Then, walked over and asked Alli why he had done that. Other parents were approaching, so his baba scooped him up and started hurriedly going back home. 

"Baba, stop," Alli cried. His baba stopped in his track, so suddenly he almost fell. "I still want to play." 

His baba squeezed his eyes shut tightly. " _Your mama has cookies_ ," he signed at Alli. 

Alli squealed in delight and hugged him around the neck. "Go!"

When they got home, Alli was disappointed to find no mama and no cookies. His baba made him a drink and told him to drink it all up. Alli became very numb and fell to the floor. His baba sat next to him as he weakly tried to move, doing his best to hum to calm Alli down. His baba signed in front of his face, " _It's okay. Go to sleep, baby._ "

When Alli could no longer move at all, his baba scooped him up and gently carried him to another room, propping him against a wall. He picked up black chalk and drew on the floor while Alli listed in and out of consciousness. His baba picked him up again and sat in the center of the circle, putting Alli in his lap. " _I am sorry_ ," he signed in front of Alli's face. The toddler did not understand.

The little boy did not die easily. 

He woke up in his crib, wheezing painfully, but he lived.

When the necklace of bruises had disappeared, his baba taught him how to make the flowers bloom. It had only taken one afternoon to cement the fact that Alli would grow up without many friends his age. It was easier to concentrate on music and dancing.

Once he was past his awkward stage, Alli didn't have to try hard to turn heads. He was no longer that Alli, he was _that Alli_ with a giggle or a chuckle to garnish his name. As a performer, he lapped up the attention. The attention of high society lapped up the gossip and scandals that followed his swagger. 

But this is not a story about Alli.

Kravitz did not remember being Alli.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though Kravitz lives in a _specific_ astral plane, my assumption is the gods transcend the limits of realities. (Merle has always been a follower of Pan; Istus talksa bout other realities casually.) It makes sense for Kravitz's powers to do so.


	3. You're Godsdamn Right You Should Be Scared of Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How did the song go again?

He pulled his hood farther down and slipped into his material form as he noticed a boy crying outside. The child looked too old to be able to see him, but it was better to take the precaution. He readied his scythe and went inside. The lich was starting to rise as the ravens had said. 

The elf looked up at him pleadingly. "Please, my grandchildren need me," he begged. 

Kravitz didn't hesitate to collect the soul. It didn't matter if he rose for love or greed, there was a natural order. He paused before he went back outside, listening to the quiet sobs. Then he walked past briskly.

It didn't feel like long until the ravens gathered him for another rising lich. It was rare for them to watch one who rose, but useful nonetheless. He found the lich looming over someone who was very much alive and helpless. Normally, Kravitz waited for mortals to leave first. Considering the elf was tied to the banister of the staircase, he highly doubted that would happen. Kravitz took a few long strides and cut through the thing with his claws, ripping its soul into the shadows. 

The elf looked directly at Kravitz, then cowered back. Kravitz knew he shouldn't have been visible to anyone who wasn't dying or dead. He checked his bounties, but found nothing. A fluke, then, or a psychic. It didn't matter, he was done with this bounty.

The reaper started to leave, but hesitated. He reached forward and cut through the ties with his claws. That was all the help he could give, no, more than he should have.

The natural order was to leave a someone alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I told you guys I enjoy deep level mysteries.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow my [Tumblr](https://evitcani-writes.tumblr.com/).


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